The Boundless Parallels
by ukishun
Summary: What is a Hibiki? Is it a question that needs to be answered or to be proven? Then let Hibiki prove he is a Hibiki. But the Parallels seem to have something else in mind.
1. The Nirvana Designation

_Parallelism._

_It was an idea all of them dismissed. It was simply too absurd. Even the Doctor would not hold the thoughts reasonable. _

_But how right were they?_

**Chapter I**

**The Nirvana Designation**

* * *

The still void of the Prexis was the constant companion of Parfet. Although certain malfunctions would arise, the blue ball kept silent and maybe a sarcastic look on its features. It had probably saved them when a Prexis energy missile was launched. And still, the blue energy source had remained faithful to them, despite the attacks. 

It did though throw tantrums twice, once during the combination of Ikazuchi and the pirate ship, and the other time was when they forced the Prexis Plagma to work in such a green planet.

If it had just not happened...

If there were repairs done to it

If

If just...

The ship was pushed hard into a long chase, the Harvesters outnumbering them far much to be counted. The Harvesters did not give up easily. Knowing such power eminated from Nirvana's crew, they quickly assimilated large numbers of Harvesters out only for one reason: Nirvana's crew.

It looked bleak in such a situation, where you knew you couldn't win, but somehow you had to. It never was the same...the incident the first time would not happen again.

Still, they hoped...

That a miracle would happen

To save them all

"Dita! Meia! Jura! All Dread teams dispatch! Hibiki, go for it!"

The Dreads quickly made their way to the void space, managing to face the courage just to face such an unspeakable foe.

Hibiki courageouly dispatched his Vanguard into space, and tried to unite with Dita, after all, it was the firepower they needed.

But the Harvesters learned quickly. Scout Harvesters were immediately dispatched to prevent such a uniting of Dread and Vanguard.

It worked. The humans were forced to fight by themselves, unable to come even close to each other. 

Dita's Dread waltzed through space, constantly evading fire from Harvesters. It almost careened straight to a Scout Harvester, if not for quick thinking that she manipulated the controls hastily. 

"Uchujin-san! Tasukete!!!" she screamed as she barely parried laser fire erupting from enemies behind her.

But even Uchujin-san could not do anything.

"...kuso!" Jura cursed under her breath as attacks came pummeling her red Dread. 

Even Meia was visibly annoyed. She began her reckless flight manuevers, dodging Harvesters, evading fire...

The Dreads were being ignored by the main fleet. After all, the Harvesters figured, what were the Dreads and the Vanguard without the main ship? 

The Harvesters pursued the Nirvana, constant fire erupting from them, aiming right through the Nirvana. 

The defense system of Nirvana quickly gave away.

"Shield systems down by 40%!" one crew memeber reported.

"Arrgh!" Magno clenched her fists and gritted her teeth. Why the heck was this happening? It didn't have to happen...Why were they chased by Harvesters? And so many?! "Bart! Manuever us out of this!"

"Hai! Hai!" the naked pilot named Garsus immediately replied. It wasn't that easy though, many Harvesters were annoying him, and with realism that surrounded the navigation, it could have been hard enough.

Suddenly, the screen flashed Parfet's image. 

"What Parfet?" Buzam asked, slightly annoyed at such disturbances during crisis.

"We're in trouble." Parfet's eyes showed anxiety and her round eyepieces seemed to magnify the extent.

"How come?"

"The Prexis Plagma is in a dangerous state. If much more energy is used, the Prexis Plagma would be strained to an extent where it would be too volatile to operate. A chain reaction would cause the Prexis to overheat, causing it to simply explode."

Irritation covered Buzam's face. "How long until this happens?"

"At the most, 25 minutes is what I can estimate. Any longer than that, the ship the Prexis would overheat."

Maybe the Harvesters knew it would happen, maybe not. Who knew how much the Harvesters knew of human life?

"Any solutions?"

"We could try Prexis Reverse Polarization. Meaning-" She stopped, the whole Nirvana shook once more. She managed to keep her balance, keeping her from falling. "Since the Prexis is in a dangerous state, we could try to release the energy through polarization."

"Then try it!"

"It might not work!" she worriedly said. "Even worse, the reverse polarization might fracture the alignment of the two ships, causing them to break into half!" 

Magno quietly seethed in her seat, her temples bulging with veins. How were they getting out of this?!!

Meanwhile, the scout harvesters kept the four, Jura, Meia, Hibiki, and Dita busy. The rest of the Dread fleet were damaged early in the battle, making them useless for the rest of the time.

Repairs were impossible. The whole crew was in amok, their emotions overtaken by panic and confusion. They had needed a savior, above all, they needed a good ending. 

That was not happening.

Time quickly passed, 10 minutes, where slowly Hibiki Tokai and the 3 Dread fighters were too exhausted. Their fighting response had slowed down, and the Harvesters knew that they were of no threat. The Harvesters quickly moved on to more important matters, like the extermination of Nirvana.

The Dreads and Hibiki's Vanguard immediately proceeded to Nirvana, being the only defense of Nirvana. But Hibiki and the others learned fast that Harvesters were relentless in their pursuit, they just kept on coming. And for another reason, the Harvesters knew the fighting styles of Hibiki and the Dread fighters, giving Harvesters an upper edge in evasion.

Time betrayed them, giving them only 5 minutes before Nirvana would inevitably explode. 

"Large energy heat source detected from mother ship!"

"On screen!"

The mother ship's open hole began to spit out energy, charging up the nozzle, ready to fire...

"Bart! Evade!" 

"HAI!" He quickly moved out of harm's way, and everything was going to be all right...

The suddeness of which it happened was the worst part of it. It seemed as if a nightmare, where you were going to eventually wake up and forget it...

The lights of Nirvana abruptly shut off.

"NANI?!" Buzam screamed. She grabbed her radio transistor and it crackled to life. "Parfet! Report!" 

"The Prexis has just shut down!" Parfet said, anxiety and worry piercing her voice.

"Energy beam coming! Distance 2400 and closing!"

"IIE!!!" Hibiki screamed. Using what left energy inside him, he rushed to Nirvana, only to find he was too-

"Sayonara Hibiki, Dita, Jura, Meia..." the trailed voice of Magno said. Her mocked enthusiasm seemed to betray the sad words she uttered. "I just hope that you will all make-"

"OBA-CHAN! Don't die on me!" Hibiki's voice pierced through the radio. 

"Boss!" Meia's voice uttered, tears staining her face. 

"DAME!!!" Dita tried to scream. She cursed the helplessness, the unability to do anything, just to watch your loved ones die like that.

"Distance: 500!" 

"It out all right," Magno continued, the very first tears erupting from her face. "Make sure you take care of that boy because-"

The energy beam pierced through Nirvana, the very fabric of metal which consisted it, melted at the heat....

The Prexis roared to life, giving them video communication, for the moment.

The four stared into the eyes of the crew they saw. Magno, Buzam, Parfet, Bart, Barnette, Gascogne. Gascogne made a hard effort to smile and said her favorite words. "Smile! Smile!"

Then static roared into the video screen as Meia, Jura, Dita and Hibiki thought it was the end.

And when all had failed, it was not yet the end.

"YOU! MONSTERS!" Hibiki muttered through clenched teeth. "I WILL NEVER FORGIVE YOU!" He took the sword from his back and readied himself to destroy at sight. His anger seethed through his veins, adrenalin pumping.

Revenge.

Revenge. 

Die you bastards!

As he came nearer and nearer to the mother ship, hundreds of scout harvesters crashed unto Hibiki, rendering his Vanguard useless.

"IIE!!!" He tried moving it, and gave a slight glance to his bleeding fingers, all the pain.

Pain.

Darkness.

"LOW FUEL WARNING!" the computer-generated voice said through Dita's Dread. 

Harvesters quickly surrounded Dita's Dread, clutching on to the Dread's exterior. 

"ALARM! ALARM! EJECT IMMEDIATELY!"

"Jura! Report!" Meia called. "JURA!"

Jura's Dread lay motionless, no movement obvious. 

Dead?

Possibly dead?

Meia's thoughts gave in to the panic, confusion...

Mama...

Mama...

She wanted to be with Mama...To just wake up from a bad dream...

All the pain...

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

I took Chapter I from The Path That Still Lies and made it part of this fic. 


	2. The Collimation Begins

_A parallel world would exist only if the parallelism was absolute._

_Or so they had said._

_No one would believe that._

_Maybe they were right._

_On the other hand, who would know?_

_Everything was lost...or so it seemed._

**Chapter II**

**The Collimation Begins**

The deaths were uncalled for. That was the reasoning behind every human who had witnessed the destruction of Nirvana. But what if nature had its own justification? That the deaths were meant. And so were the humans pawns?

Hibiki Tokai managed to walk around for the second time, holding the crutches that supported him. Ten days had passed since Nirvana's complete destruction, and he, Meia, and Dita had fortunately survived. But it didn't seem all fortunate. All of Nirvana was completed obliterated, its crew gone. More of dead. So what was the use of living? The continuous pain and torture of life, if it seemed it had no purpose? No purpose. Hibiki looked far into the horizon, silently grieving the deaths which should not have happened. He had survived all right; some drifter colony had picked them up. That was good. For the moment. 

Jura Basil Elden had survived the incident, but she did not survive the aftermath of what would happen to her body. There was massive internal bleeding, coupled with dangerous wounds throughout her body. She did not make it. She was dead. That Dread pilot would never be seen again. 

Dita Liebely's cheerful smile had not been seen for a long time. She merely looked far away, as if in a distance she could hear any of the Nirvana crew. But that was impossible; they were dead, long dead. She began to contemplate what would happen, but that was quite unlike her. She was spontaneous, bursting with life. And now she was emotionally dead. Everything wasted and lost. 

Meia Gisborn kept that cold look on her face. But there was clearly a pained anguish that was deeply embedded in her features. It could not be taken away, and she quickly saw the futility of a living. It was like back then, in Mejerrru, where life was meaningless. And _okashira had given back that life. And now _okashira_ was dead. _

There was a strange muted silence that was ever-present in the three of them. The silence was deafening, and the drifter colony members simply ignored them. The three were in pain. Horrible pain. To witness a person's death, and the inability to do anything; this witnessing brings a horrible, indescribable feeling that defies any other form of pain. 

The Harvesters had won. 

Nirvana had vowed to fight back; they had made a decision that they alone would dictate the course of their life. It sounded good at first, and it sounded even better later on. They were winning battle after battle. Everything was in order, the win of Nirvana. Their victory over the Harvesters, and save mankind from an organ-harvesting spree. But in the utter end, they lost. All of Nirvana was destroyed. Its crew members were dead. The thoughts only brought more pain to the survivors, but they were already so used to pain.

Why couldn't things go right? Seemingly as if they were.  They should have.

And then he saw once more. That green light. 

_What was happening?_

No one knew.

That green light. The lines grew closer. 

Destiny's gear shall unfold.

…

**Hibiki Tokai was the one who would never give up.**

**He was the hero of Mejerru and Taraaku.**

**He was the savior of mankind.**

**He would determine his own destiny.**

Yet...

_The parallelism eludes our understanding. We fail to see its meaning, its purpose, its nature. Yes, we understand the concept, but the nature and meaning are yet to be found. It has escaped man's understanding, and it shall be for a long time._

_But one must understand. A parallel exhibits certain similarities with other parallels, yet some parallels would exhibit much greater differences. _

_Then it would mean..._

**"Who is this Hibiki Tokai?"**

**"We do not know, we cannot see why he exists."**

**"Then there must be something wrong."**

**"He is in touch with us. We cannot see how. It must be something in him."**

**"What do you mean?"**

**"We are not yet sure."**

**"Find out."**

**"Yes."**

_Hibiki Tokai smiled at the Dread he piloted._

_Hibiki Tokai looked at the Harvesters in respect._

_Hibiki Tokai was a first-class citizen._

**_Who then is a Hibiki Tokai?_**

****

**_Do you know what a Hibiki is?_**

_It is not the Hibiki we know, nonetheless the truth still stands: a Hibiki Tokai is a Hibiki Tokai. This futile arguement seems to lack plausibleness, as if it had been thought of by a young, naive child._

_Yet,the facts clearly speak for themselves._

_A Hibiki Tokai is a Hibiki Tokai. _

_No more, no less._

_How can a parallelism exist without defying the continuum of space and time? It clearly cannot exist without defiling at least one of the two. Yet, a parallelism is known to have an existence even without these factors. _

_The question remains unanswered. Perhaps for eternity. Yet, it begs to be answered. How can a parallelism exist?_

_The question merely creates a newer struggle within the mind, as it tries to grasp certain fragments of meaning which sound plausible. A further study will bring the grains of half-truths and half-lies to an end._

_Still, the question remains. Unanswered. Unless..._

_Yet we shall always fail to understand. We are bound by our limited minds, its ends so met easily. Still, naive minds which countinue this otoise nonsense merely end in their bitter starts._

_Then again..._

Hibiki Tokai, a collection of carbon and hydrogen, humanity, man, woman, friends. 

_Who is Hibiki?_


	3. Entrée

The Boundless Parallels

By : ukishun

Really sorry, this one's soo short. I'll make it up to you in the next chapter! 

**DISCLAIMER: **All people, places, and events in the story are purely fictional and are made without basis of truth whatsoever. Vandread is the sole property of GONZO, its affiliates, and to whoever GONZO deems fit. The author is not related with GONZO, or any of its affiliates. Ideas regarding Vandread stated in this story, but not stated in the show belong solely to the author. Ideas on parallelism are mine and mine alone.

**ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: **To shroom_man_777 for some ideas on parallelism

_When the parallelism reaches the point of intersection, a tear in the fabric of space and time widens. A physical space develops within this tear, and then a gateway slowly opens. This rare event happens once in a millennium, when the intersecting forces of parallelism open, the continuum fracturing as it forms a tangible existence. No man has ever traveled through the parallels, this has been forbidden._

_Until now._

**Chapter III**

**Entrée**

Life did not exist with the man called Hibiki. Bloodshot eyes stained with grief, a hollow hole within his belonging; these were all what was left after the incident. His whole existence he began to question, he did not know why he had existed. Did he exist merely to suffer? Therefore…

There was no need of life.

He had just abandoned everything he had hoped for, everything he had loved. Nirvana was gone, his friends were gone, he was left. He had chosen his path; he would fight the Harvesters. But it seemed ill fit in his present predicament. And so he chose his path once more.

_The path to death._

His demise would move no one; no one would care. The life he had did not need to be continued. The mere grief had moved him to the abyss of sadness, where the arms of pain embraced him. And he did not let go of him. Pain was his ever-constant companion, but he wished the pain to go away. Yet it would not.

Therefore, he was to die. It was his choice, his decision.

But his life's end it was not his to decide.

_What was the purpose of the intersecting parallels? Evidence suggested that the fracturing of parallels held no advantage for each parallel, nor a loss for each one. It only wrought more of that frustrating desperation, a desperation born of the inability to discover its true nature. It only pitted the men to their limits, their exhaustions absolute. No one knew why, no one cared anymore. It was mind-boggling, but it only wasted their time. And so they dismissed it, choosing instead to hide their bemused looks. They called parallelism a mere joke, a hoax that needed no consideration. The humans failed once more…_

**_"He has chosen to die then."_**

****

**_"I would believe so."_**

****

**_"So will he?"_**

****

**_"No."_**

****

**_"How do you know this?"_**

****

**_"It has not been allowed."_**

****

**_"Very well then."_**

****

**_"It begins."_**

Hibiki Tokai's Vanguard slowly hummed in the background, its systems nearly destroyed yet its function had not ceased. But Hibiki no longer cared for any this, it would mean nothing soon. Hibiki Tokai closed his eyes and allowed his mind to drift. To reminiscent the felicitous memories he had lived. 

And soon, he would die with his memories. 

But not soon enough.

_"What are those ships for?" a young blue-haired boy asked, in silent awe as ships launched themselves toward space._

_"They're going to fight the females of Mejerru, Hibiki," the man replied, a delicate look placed upon the young boy. _

_"I wanna be a soldier when I grow up so that I can fight the females!" the boy excitedly said, his spirits in a high. Nothing could have ever hampered this boy's dream._

_Except that it didn't happen the way it should have been._

The void of space was eerily silent, but not in the way Hibiki had expected. There was no sound from his comlink, the shouts of comrades, the nuisances of Dita. There was nothing left for him.

A bright blue light shone far in the distance, a ring of light growing larger. The light spun around like a ball, and it quickly grew to be a huge sphere. 

The light caught Hibiki's attention. 

"What is that thing?" he asked, without the slightest inkling that…

He was being pulled into the light. His Vanguard was being absorbed into the light. He tried to pull away from it, but his Vanguard would not come to life. He slammed the controls of the Vanguard, to no avail. He tried to fight the light, but the more he opposed it, the more it grew stronger. 

_He was entering the gateway._

_The Gateway of the Parallels._

Hibiki screamed. All he could see were blue flashing lights, lights that did not resemble anything he had ever seen before. His Vanguard shook violently, the pressure continuing to build up inside the yellow mech.

And once more, that green light.

**_"Hibiki Tokai."_**

****

**_"Where am I?"_**

****

**_"Why are you here?"_**

****

**_"Shouldn't I ask you that question?"_**

****

**_"Why are you here?"_**

****

**_"I don't know!!"_**

****

**_"Hibiki Tokai, how have you entered what was forbidden?"_**

****

**_"Entered? The forbidden?"_**

And at last, he saw the void of space once more.

The tumult had ended.

His Vanguard finally roared back to life, as the onboard scanners picked up something from a distance.

_No, it couldn't be. _Hibiki was perplexed.

The scanners read something large, a huge ship coming towards him.

It was the Nirvana.


End file.
